Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne #1 Manga Review

Plot: Maron Kusakabe is your average 16 year old high school student. Well, except for the fact that she’s the reincaration of Joan of Arc! After nightfall, she transforms into Kaito Jeanne, and with the help of angel in training, Finn, hunts down and captures demons hiding in paintings. The daughter of the police, her best friend, Miyako, is determined to capture Jeanne, not even suspecting she’s Maron. Along comes fellow thief, Kaito Sinbad, and Jeanne suddenly has competition in the demon catching department. And why does her heart flutter whenever Sinbad’s around??

Comments – May contain Spoilers!

This is one of those shoujo manga that you have to read after checking any sense of reality at the door. It ran in Ribon, which is a magazine for elementary school girls in Japan. The plot is not deep, and it’s not very believable. How many high school girls live alone while they parents, bitterly divorced, both work overseas? I hope the fact that they never contact Maron is a plot point to be discussed, because it’s not very believable, either!

Why doesn’t Maron’s BEST friend recognize her when she’s stealing things?? She doesn’t look THAT different! And why is it that the police chief is always a bumbling fool in these stories?

This manga reminded me a lot of St Tail. Kaito Jeanne, and later, Kaito Sinbad, always announce their intended thefts to the public, yet they always escape the elaborate traps laid by the police to capture them. Are the police that inept??

How is it that the young romance interest moves into the apartment next door, and also lives ALONE?? Doesn’t anybody have parenting skills in Ribon land??

Arina Tanemura is a great artist. I love how detailed her panels are. There is a lot of motion with her layouts, and she sprinkles very amusing SD drawings in her work. I don’t think her story telling skills equal her art skills, however. Everyone is just nuts about her works, but so far I have found them to be all fluff and no substance.

Grade: B-

I’ll give this series another shot, and see if there is a deeper story arc. This series is only 7 volumes long, but I haven’t decided whether or not to get them all yet.